1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for integrating and prioritizing business data and audio messaging in order to enable a user to perform business-related processes directly from a voice mail, e-mail, web browser, or text messaging system.
2. Background Information
Currently, there are a number of viable ways to send and receive information or data in a business-related environment. Several of the most prominent methods of sending and receiving data are e-mail (computer-to-computer), fax (phone-to-phone), database data-transfer (computer-to-computer), and pager services (phone-to-phone or e-mail-to-phone). It has become increasingly vital that business professionals possess the updates to the most recent business data in order to make informed and well-reasoned decisions. For example, the use of wireless networks, video-conferencing, portable e-mail devices (i.e. BLACKBERRY brand devices), and cell-phone applications have become common tools associated with running a business effectively and in keeping employees in touch with customers and other employees.
According to some recent studies, employees should achieve 55 minutes extra work per day this year with the usage of wireless e-mail services. Further studies indicate that 24% of business end-users believe that push-to-talk voice calling, wireless IM and wireless video conferencing could increase their overall work productivity. Recently, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan stated that advances in technology lie behind much of the U.S. economy's growth over the past 10 years. In addition to producing more widgets, information technology has prompted speed, quality improvements, customer service, and new products.
One of the major downfalls of technology in the workplace is technology's ability to accelerate the pace of work and of communication beyond what humans are able to bear. A recent survey found that an overwhelming majority of business employees believe that they are physically incapable of responding to the vast amount of information received each day —via e-mail, database transfer, pager, and cell-phone. With the advent of so many means of communication, users can easily become lost and overwhelmed at the amount of information they are required to process and use each work day. To further exacerbate the problem, the use of numerous software and hardware packages has made the integration of the information needed to run a business difficult, if not impossible. Recently, many experts have criticized the use of high-technology in communication in regard to productivity. In its simplest form, the concept of productivity consists of two elements: the value of goods produced divided by the number of hours worked. According to Robert Solow, a Nobel prize winner from M.I.T the computer age can be seen everywhere except in the productivity statistics. Countless number of hours of productivity are wasted on sorting through various pieces of data for the one piece of information that is critically important to the user at that very moment. Research done by Purdue University's School of Technology found that workers may accomplish more tasks with the advent of new technology without actually improving productivity. In other words, workers may simply be getting the wrong things done faster. Although the technology used to increasing the flow of communication has progressed immensely, it has failed to progress at the same speed in assisting workers with critical management skills, such as: identifying priorities, managing time, planning, and delegating. Further, a worker's productivity has become highly dependant upon their relative ability to manage priorities and effectively plan their time, especially in an environment where more information and technology is thrown at a worker than ever in the history of the working world.
Like so many technologies today, voice mail has tremendous potential to help employees to communicate quicker, to get more done, and to be more productive from remote locations. However, the current use of voice mail is inadequate at integrating and prioritizing vast amounts of data, such that the user can make informed business decisions and perform real-time business processes through the voice mail system. The typical business professional is able to use their voice mail services on their cell phone merely for receiving information from a caller or, in some cases, from a small electronic message (a “text message”). Businesses are even using portable e-mail devices (a “blackberry”) to keep their employees in touch with customers and other employees. But the current voice mail methods are not dynamic. Such methods do not provide users with automatically prioritized information, drawn pro-actively or passively from multiple data sources. Nor does the current voice mail technology allow a user to perform business processes from remote locations. Finally, current voice mail technology is inadequate at pulling in data from a number of data sources, as is required in today's environment.
A method is needed, utilizing voice messaging systems, to integrate relevant, real-time business data from numerous sources, categorizing and prioritizing that data, so that the business professional can adequately perform business processes from remote locations.